Project Lore

Oh, god do I understand the pain to be a healer finally. Previously, I have leveled my Rogue, a Mage and a Hunter. Never have I truly focused on a healing class, or even a tank (that is my next project). That was until recently. Since I hit 60+ and have been voyaging throughout the Outlands, I have been bombarded with tells. Ninety percent of them, if not more, simply asked “do you want to heal x,” quest, instance, help in PvP, you name it. I am not ignorant. I knew that I would be receiving these tells as soon as I got into the higher levels of World of Warcraft, but the sheer number I've been receiving is astounding. Ironically, they would have never asked me had they looked at my gear. It wasn't until some friends ran me through Ramparts, Blood Furnace and Slave Pens a few times that I became a competently geared healer for my level. Before that I was decked out in level 35-50 gear from power leveling – as a Shadow Priest - via the Refer-a-Friend service. This was responsible for my health barely being over 2000 and my mana pool hovering in the 4000 range. Not exactly ideal. The main reason I rolled a healer is simply because they are always needed. On my other toons, I would have to spam the LFG, trade, city and general chat channels to try and find groups. Minutes to hours could go by before something solidified. Now I simply say “Healer LFG Slave Pens” and boom, I have an invite. It feels nice to be wanted. In my defense, I feel like I have always been kind to healers, as I never randomly whispered someone or harassed them to come on my run. To top that off, I always would hand them any items I did not need. Healers must have loved me when they grouped with my Rogue. As soon as I felt the group and healer were competent to finish the instance, I'd open a trade window and dump all my mana pots, spirits or mana regeneration food and mana drinks on them. Back in my raiding days, I heard that some Priests asked for me to be in their group in hopes of scoring free swag, maybe that is just my ego talking. So the moral of the story is, be nice to your healers. Like a good tank, they can find a new group quickly. They don't need you, you need them. Oh, except Goggins, /spit on him at any and all opportunities.

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Not too long ago I wrote about my experiences in Mount Hyjal and gave everyone the opportunity to share our favorite places to play. I really enjoyed reading through your comments, and you definitely brought back some good memories of leveling in Duskwood and my first steps into Nagrand. Today I want to flip that. I will tell you right now there is an instance I flat out REFUSE to step foot in. Ask anyone in my guild, you can't pay me to go in there. The instance I'm talking about is Slabs (or The Shadow Labyrinth, if you prefer). There are several reasons I hate this place, but you can pretty much chalk it up to two really bad experiences. For quite a while I skated along running it every so often, no major issues to speak of. Then I had the run that will live in infamy. I was just killing some time one random afternoon, so I gathered up a group of friends (including DrDark, who now loves Slabs about as much as I do) and decided to knock out a quick instance run. Things started okay, then it happened. We wiped no less that 15 times on Grandmaster Vorpil. Chalk it up to inexperience, flawed strat, or whatever. The point is it was utterly painful! Four hours later we finally made our way to Murmur.  Another 8-10 wipes and we just called it. This group was fairly skilled, and stubborn as all hell, but we finally just had to cut our losses and move on with our lives. You can finish Kara in less time! I was at a bit of a loss for why the run was so bad, but It was at that moment I swore off Slabs, I felt like I didn't really need to put myself through that again... Alas, probably 4 months later I was starting to get pretty well geared and was working on my TK attunement quests. Guess where it sends me? Heroic Slabs. Oh Joy. I thought about this for a while, Slabs couldn't be near as bad as I remember right? What the hell, lets do this thing! So we did. I was a much better player, and put together a pretty impressive group. So in we go, thinks were going smooth until Blackheart the Inciter. Then all hell breaks loose. 6-7 wipes on Blackheart, at least 10 on Vorpil, and 5 on Murmur. I don't know if we were having an off day, but it was another 4 hour run from hell. It was that point I swore to myself, and meant it, no more Slabs, NEVER AGAIN. This time I've stuck to it, and I never see myself going back. In fact it's become the big joke in the guild whenever Slabs pops up as the heroic daily. "Bast will tank! He loves Slabs!" Har har, my response has become canned "never again." I'm hoping I'm not the only one who has this strong of feelings against an instance. There is no other instance in the game I mind running, and I rarely wipe in heroics at all, but something about Slabs just sends chills down my spine. Do you guys have any hellish experiences to share, or any instances that you flat refuse to run? I completely understand if you do, trust me.

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